Party Girl and Monsters

This past weekend we had a small luncheon in honor of Mette turning 1. (We also celebrated Rachel's other boy's birthday, but that was hush hush as he as the same opinion about birthdays as eric does.) Grandmom and Grandpa came down from the mountains and Rachel and her boys came over. It was also the weekend of one of Otto's best buddies birthday but they were swimming in family so we kept this very low key. Mainly it was about the food for the adults. I made some mac and cheese with the yummy tomato sauce I blogged about earlier and green pea parmesan soup. Nathan made fantastic lentil burgers and Rachel brought a cake. And by a cake I don't mean just any cake. This cake is the family tradition in her family and I think will soon be a tradition in our family as well. It is a poppy seed cake with custard filling and chocolate icing. Huge hit!! Rachel always says how she loves the cake but always eats too much of it and makes herself sick. I have always thought that was silly, who could eat too much of this cake?? That was before yesterday when I ate too much. Don't worry though, I took care of the problem and ate the rest of the cake today. There, solved that! The luncheon was quite a hit, at least for the adults... I suppose when the kids are older we will have to strive to make their birthdays more about them, but for now it is just a good excuse to have a yummy meal with people we like.

For the party Mette was sporting some super hair.

Along with an adorable dress. She received a bag of hand me downs from Otto's friend Freya a few days ago that included this dress. It is so wonderful I think she will be wearing it a lot. Machine wash and dry, can't be beat.

For her birthday Rachel made Mette a doll. Since she was making her a doll, I thought she should also have a bed for her doll. This bed was one my dad made for me when I was little. I repainted it and made a quilt for it. I have never made a quilt before and there are many things I would do differently in future quilt making attempts, but it was a fun little project. The backing and binding to the quilt are old receiving blankets from Otto and Mette which makes it extra special to me. I also made a little pillow. The "mattress" part is the same one my mom made for me.
Knowing that Otto was going to have to watch Mette get a few gifts, Rachel made him something as well. He is quite fond of monsters so she made him a wonderful little monster just the perfect size for snuggling with. He named it I Love You and it has slept with him every night since he she gave it to him.
Once again we got out candles and all sang to Mette. She seemed still a little taken aback at the idea, but a bit less scared by it this time. Otto couldn't be stopped at blowing out her candles which I don't think she minded since she wasn't going to do it herself.
Lately Otto asks eric for piggy back rides all the time. While I am sure he likes crawling around on the floor with a 32 lbs. toddler on his back, it is nice to have a break from time to time. We decided to teach Otto how to give rides to Mette.
I recently got my sewing machine serviced and my serge machine working which is making me go a bit nuts. I have been making pants, bags, curtains. Fabric trembles when I enter the room. I have extra of the Formula 1 material I used to make the pillow for Otto. I took some and made a pocket on a bag I made for him to carry cars and trinkets to friends houses.

Here is a better shot of the fabulous monster Rachel made for Otto.

I made him these pants out of an used men's shirt. I used the front pocket to make what I thought would be a back pocket on the pants. Otto seeing the big pocket felt it needed to go in the front. It doesn't really matter with the pants so he wears them with the pocket in the front. It just so happens to be the right size for his monster.